Events

To keep you informed, entertained and engaged, the Society runs an ongoing programme of events throughout the year with talks, discussion meetings, visits to places of interest and an annual lecture by a keynote speaker.

Heritage Open Days

Every September thousands of buildings throughout England open their doors to the general public to celebrate national heritage. Special events may also be organised including art exhibitions, concerts, guided tours and talks.

Cheltenham regularly takes part, and in recent years the general public have had access to a number of significant buildings in the town, notably the Masonic Hall, the Synagogue, Cheltenham Ladies' College, and Cheltenham Minster. There have been behind the scenes tours at Cheltenham Playhouse and Sandford Parks Lido as well.

HODs is organised nationally by the National Trust, supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and is awarded funds by Postcode Earth Trust. See heritageopendays.org.uk

Special events may also be organised at these places including art exhibitions, concerts, talks and guided tours

Please visit Cheltenham's HODs Facebook page for details of local venues and activities. In the meantime, the notes of the latest meeting held with local participants are here.

Civic Day

Civic Day is a national celebration of civic pride - a day when communities across the country say "we care about where we live".

The first Civic Day was held in 2011, and is now celebrated by many community groups in different ways including tours, competitions, street parties, etc. Some local civic societies arrange a week of events around Civic Day.

In Cheltenham, Civic Day 2017 was marked by an exhibition about the history and identity of the Lower High Street in the Chapel Arts Gallery, Knapp Road. The event was made possible by the collaboration of Cheltenham West End Partnership and the University of Gloucestershire’s History Department.

In 2018, we took part in the national Street Pride campaign and volunteers carried out an audit of the High Street to identify clutter and other problems. In 2019, we checked on progress, focussing on the Lower High Street. The Street Pride Report can be seen here.